


Disparity

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, bed sharing, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 06:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14514072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: It should’ve been unsettling, she figured; at least a little unnerving, that technically a serial killer was sharing her bed, sharing her space. Even in his sleep, his little pinky overpowered hers.





	Disparity

    When he finally slept- worn out by waging a highly personal war, Karen couldn’t seem to doze off after him.   
  
    After insisting they could share her bed like grown ups; like mature, regular people who were tired, Karen chided herself in hindsight. He was one of the closest people in her life- as close as someone like Frank Castle, the Punisher could be to anyone- and laying side-by-side in the dark, hearing his breath go in and out, peaceful-like… it struck Karen as intimate. Even over the covers, in the city in mid-July, fully-clothed sharing a bed like mature, regular people who were tired, Karen exhaled a breath at the closeness.   
  
    Turning her head to him, Karen could make out the shape of him, the silhouette of his face in the dark. The ridge of his brows, the shape of his nose, his sleepily parted lips, the way his chin was tucked in his sleep. _Fuck_ , he just looked so military- even sleeping, that it made Karen roll her eyes. Straight-backed, arms at his sides- Frank didn’t have to be as tired as he was to fall asleep like that. She tried to close her eyes again.   
  
    Slowly turning over to her side, Karen tried to slide her weight against the bed without jostling him, and let out a small sigh of relief when he slept unstirred as she resettled, facing him.   
  
    Looking him over, again, Karen didn’t flinch at the intimacy of it, anymore. She tried to bask in the temporary calm. There was no point in pretending to herself that _the Punisher-_ the thing that roamed the streets of Hell’s Kitchen looking for scum to put down and step over- had never seen or laughed at her in her pajamas with the little pandas on them. She inched their hands closer together in the dark, stretching her pinky across his- linking their tiny fingers in the quiet. His breathing never changed, so she shook her head feeling his pinky squeeze against hers reflexively, in his sleep. Looking down at their hands,Karen stifled the yawn that was coming with the early morning hours, and frowned at her own pinky in his. Her fingers, her wrist… they were small, compared to his. Her arm, compared to his bicep. It should’ve been unsettling, she figured; at least a _little_ unnerving, that technically a serial killer was sharing her bed, sharing her space. Even in his sleep, his little pinky overpowered hers.  
  
    He was Frank Castle, famed super anti-hero, a man so military-bred he even slept like he was still at war. A man who had shot at her before; a man who’d killed for her. If he wanted to kill her- she could never stop him. Squeezing his pinky back, Karen swallowed the thought. It almost came from curiosity, rather than fear.   
  
    His hands were always soft on her- he never touched her to hurt her. She _wasn’t_ afraid of him, of the things he’d done. Of the things he was planning on doing. Nodding to herself in the dark, she just acknowledged the disparity. If he woke up, and suddenly grabbed her slender wrist and twisted til her arm snapped clean off-  
  
    He stirred with a half-snore, pulling her out of her thought. Curling into herself, Karen relaxed her eyes closed, leaving her pinky touching Frank’s- touching the Punisher’s. All she heard was his breathing, as she finally started drifting off, and a thought made her smile, sleepily. It wasn’t true what they said; New York was a city that occasionally slept peacefully, and so could Frank Castle.


End file.
